Lots of work done this week! Two weeks into my accountability challenge and I’m already doing a lot better staying accountable than I have in months.
However, that doesn’t mean I’ve done perfectly. Distractions were had. And fatigue is creeping up on me.
From Last Week
The goal for next week is to finish reading the Shadows and Crowns books and to complete workshopping Halfblood’s Destiny so I have time to go through Publishing Mastermind again.
I’ve not read the Shadows and Crowns books—I managed to set aside about 2 hours this week for reading, which got me a third of the way into book one. The week has been super busy at both work and life, but it’s a good benchmark for me to realize that I probably can’t read at the rate I used to be able to accomplish anymore. At least not when I’m also doing a million other things.
The issue is that if I wait with plotting my series until I’ve done all the market research I planned, at this rate it’s going to take FOREVER, so I either gotta prioritize reading next week and see if I can speed it up, or maybe cut some books from the list.
I did, however, finish workshopping Halfblood’s Destiny. Revamping the keywords and categories took most of my time this week (the keywords I had were pretty rough, turns out). The only remaining thing I still might need to do is fine-tune the blurb, but the biggest chunk of the work is done.
Write Publish Profit 5.0
One of the things that distracted me this week was Write Publish Profit 5.0 (I’m putting here the affiliate link that I got it through, since I found out about it through the Six Figure Author Coach emails). I bought one of the earlier WPP stacks, but what I really wanted in this one was the Advanced Keywords and Categories training (and it’s what I used to revamp them on my book).
However, I also found this fabulous planner for authors by Kimberley Grabas that has single-handedly tempted me to buy a printer and just take off with it. I’m also eyeing one of the courses called Revision Hell because that’s where I’ll be when I dive into Fateweaver book 1. ?
There’s SO MUCH stuff to get through in the infostack, but that’s the kind of thing that I enjoy—I’m always learning how to improve my craft and how to get better in every aspect of this business. My problem used to be that I spent more time learning than doing, actually. So that’s one of the things I aim to fix with this challenge—DO MORE.
Next Week’s Outlook and Goals
Thanks to being an obsessive planner, I already know I’ll be swamped next week. There’s a couple of work deadlines to wrap up, and appointments to make it to. And this weekend is going to be busy, so I won’t get to rest and recharge as much as I need to (and I need to—been waking up at 5 am for a week without an alarm but not going to bed on time, which is definitely something to work on).
I also know that all my accountability endeavors ever have fallen apart the second I got tired, which usually takes me about a couple of weeks because I tend to make the most of that initial rush of motivation when committing to something—to the point where I only stop working for the day when it’s late and I’m exhausted.
So I think I have to be smart about next week, and set a single goal in order to not get frazzled and break this chain. And that goal will be to just read as much as possible, at least an hour every morning. My priority is to give myself a chance to rest—to be done with work earlier in the day and have a few hours to unwind.
It’s so easy to fall into the hustle trap, but I’ve had to learn this the hard way: if all I do is eat, work, and sleep, I won’t be able to work at all soon enough. And I have to put my day job first and my writing second. So I’m trying to find the right balance between working as much as I think I should be, and giving myself time to recover so I can give it my 100% every day.
It’s a work in progress. But I am becoming better at it over time.
Now over to you—are you staying accountable? More importantly, are you giving yourself enough rest? Any tips on how to tell yourself you’re DONE for the day when you’re wishing for one extra hour so you can wrap something up? I could use some suggestions ?
Love,
Jane
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